Using
a term he calls “the working poor” — a term he uses to refer to the
bottom 10 per cent of working household breadwinners, who hold full-time
jobs, but yet find themselves entrenched in the poverty cycle – he
said, “In other words, even if you’re fully employed, you may barely
earn enough money to bring up a family decently or to improve your
children’s economic opportunities.”

A former schoolmate of Deputy Prime Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam’s
at the Anglo-Chinese School, and later the London School of Economics,
Yeoh spent almost all his adult life working on government economic
policy, and in that time experienced a social awakening to what he feels
are inherent problems in the system.

Singapore's government needs to return to its roots of pragmatism and
its priority of serving the needs of the ordinary citizen, says former
GIC chief economist Yeoh Lam Keong. (AFP file photo)

Former top financial sector economist Yeoh Lam Keong says the government
should be more pragmatic in its approach and return to its roots to
meet and serve the needs of the ordinary citizen.

The 54-year-old, who was the chief economist at the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation for a decade, said the ruling People’s Action Party succeeded and even
exceeded expectations in doing this, from Singapore’s early years right
up to the mid-1990s.

“One of its founding values, which is still
found in large measure in government today, is pragmatism — ‘I will do
what works to get what I need done, done successfully, regardless of
ideology, convention or dogma’ — that’s a great strength of our
government,” said Yeoh, who left GIC last year to spend more time with
his family

Thursday, 30 August 2012

In this year’s National Day Rally (NDR), besides announcing new
policies, such as the construction of more universities and increase in
social security, Prime Minister Lee also brought up the issue of
xenophobia and hostility towards foreigners as well as the need for
foreigners to integrate. However, the big picture has been missed once
again, by the PAP establishment.

The Issue With Foreigners

The
issue with foreigners, unfortunately for PM Lee is not a simplistic
case of a few black sheep in society who are openly hostile and
xenophobic.

Xenophobia is a non-issue here. The government is over reacting because
our exceptional reputation is at risk. Just imagine and I bet it has
happened when foreign leaders meet with our leaders and query our recent
anti-foreigner sentiments. Can you imagine visitors asking President
Obama about rising high profile gun incidents in America? America is
being America but Singapore is turning into something else and these
visitors unthinkingly thought that we can have our cake and eat it. You
can't.

This government forgets that its policies are causing us to become just
like any other global city, albeit trying to the among the best. They
forget that you cannot be uniquely Singapore as we have come to be known
from how we got here when they execute strategies for us to wear it
like London or New York for global citizens work and play here. You must
choose.

As usual they want to have everything. It is all rhetoric
because when life is lived you start trying to have everything but
eventually are forced to choose when you have become so exhausted and
stressed. There is work-life, lots of it but just ignore the balance and
cut out the babies to get more life.

Three days after giving his speech at the National Day Rally 2012 on
Sunday, PM Lee wrote on this Facebook page yesterday night (29 Aug) that
he is heartened by the “many Singaporeans who liked his speech”.

On his Facebook page, some indeed have indicated that they did like his speech.

Edwin Siew said, “Sunday’s speech was one of the best I’ve heard from
you, Sir. Let’s continue to make Singapore a shining beacon of the East
and a great home for all!”

In an online poll on a Facebook page [Link], almost 80% of the respondents said the National Day Rally 2012 held on Sunday (26 Aug 2012) did not meet their expectations.
The question asked in the poll was “Did NDR2012 meet your expectations?“.
As at today (29 Aug) 12pm, 657 people have responded and the result is as follows:

Yes – 132 (20.1%)
No – 525 (79.9%)

A
respondent, Delson Moo, said sarcastically, “Yes, I found NDR2012 meet
my expectations. I expect them to bullshit their way and talk cock and
blaming the citizens for the shit they created, and so far, they did!!!”

Lauschke
Amy said, “One thing that came to my mind now: he said that he would
ensure HDB flats to be affordable to Singaporeans. How? By allowing BTOs
prices to be pegged to market resale flats’ prices? He has no
solutions. Rhetorics. Talk is cheap.”

University World News, 28 Aug 2012
Singapore’s
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has announced that the proportion of
young people attending higher education will rise to 40% by 2020
compared to 27% now, with two new publicly-backed universities slated
for the city-state.

Education is “Singapore’s most important
long-term investment in its people and it is a key response to the
changing world”, Lee said during his annual National Day Rally policy
speech, delivered at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) on 26
August.

Lee said that SIT and the Singapore Institute of Management
University (UniSIM) would be upgraded to become Singapore’s fifth and
sixth universities offering applied as well as part time degrees. Full story

More Universities More Hope or Despair?Good with more universities! Depending on whether the graduates churned
out are needed by industries or not though. If they get useless degrees
like BSc Modernist Flower Arrangement for the local economy, then lots
of unhappy unemployed grads around unless Singapore turns into a global
decorative flower export hub. Even if there is abundance of jobs for
grads in the market, these grads expectcushy high pays, to be advanced upwards fast, all hopefully with minimal and maximum office politics.

What should be in the works for courses in the universities? Easy to say
have more unis but exactly what courses which the 6 universities each
have their own niche and therefore customer-student base? NUS and NTU
are increasingly so alike that they are just monkey see monkey do. If
I'm a million $ salaried minister, I would say - technical and applied
skills, those with logical degree extensions of current poly diplomas as
an alternative of going to some bush university in Australia. Do you
know that with the current AUD exchange rate, it might be cheaper to
send your child to USA rather than Australia! Traditionally unglam
skills like cooking, nursing, maritime and shipping, contracting and
construction? Besides, 2 more universities in Singapore also not much
use unless these unis are kept "affordable". SMU! With real estate like
that, of course it is expensive!

Also, if 40% of each cohort is a grad, there would be more competition in the job market, like in Korea and China, and everyone wants to be a management associate or something equivalently glam sounding.

Whatever the incentives offered, I believe the Government is smart
enough not to expect too many babies will be produced by the citizens.
Over the decades, it has created an environment that is no longer
conducive to producing babies and raising kids – high cost of living,
low income, unstable job, a competitive and stressful society, global
trend of falling birth rate among developed societies, and in Singapore
at least a generation of population being indoctrinated (since young)
about the negative aspect of marrying young and having more than two
babies.

The Government knows all these problems – largely created by
them.

What the Government is doing and it will soon intensify its
effort on it, is to build a “strong case” to justify bringing in more
non-citizens here – through pushing the blame to the citizens. To be
honest, the Government has been quite successful so far : a complaint
of too many foreign adults here has now gotten the population to talk
in media or public about whether they could produce an additional or two
more babies! An issue of too many foreign adults has now become an
issue of how to encourage the citizens to give birth to more babies!
Either the Government is too cunning or its citizens are too daft!

Even in traditionally conservative countries like the United Arab
Emirates, 60 percent of women over 30 are unmarried. Half of American
adults are unmarried, up from 22 percent in 1950. Nearly 15 percent live
by themselves, up from 4 percent. The march of singledom is global.
Research firm Euromonitor predicts that "singletons" will form the
fastest growing household group in most parts of the world. It is
anticipated 48 million new solo residents will be added by 2020, an
increase of 20 percent.

In Singapore, most singletons are staying with their parents, primarily
because their own housing needs have long been neglected. Only those
above 35 are allowed to buy from the rip-off resale market. Like most
policymakers worldwide, our planners also tend to ignore singletons,
saving the best of tax incentives and housing grants for benefit of the
married only.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said last Sunday (26 August 2012) that as
spending on social services increases, taxes would have to go up sooner
or later within the next 20 years.

When Channel News Asia interviewed some tax practitioners, their
response was that there was scope for the Goods and Services Tax rate to
be increased or some other tax e.g., carbon tax to be introduced.

Ernst & Young partner Kang Choon Pin, for
instance, cited the case of Japan, which despite political opposition
recently passed legislation to increase its consumption tax rate from 5
per cent currently to 8 per cent and subsequently to 10 per cent (he did
not mention that the increase was conditional upon economic
conditions). Singapore's 7 per cent GST rate would then probably be the
lowest GST or equivalent consumption tax rate in the world. Many
countries in Europe have consumption tax rates in the high 20 per cent

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s announcement that singles may be
allowed to buy HDB flats directly from the HDB is something which I am
particularly happy about. And many other singles would too, I suspect.
(I had brought up this issue with a minister several weeks ago and he
had said yes, the MND is taking a look at it.)

For the longest time, we singles have felt marginalised,
discriminated against – all because we do not conform to what the state
deems fit to qualify for a flat. We felt like we were being treated no
better than even permanent residents. (By the way, two PR siblings can
also buy a resale HDB flat, I am told. But I can’t find any confirmation
of this. If you know where I can find such stipulations, please let me
know.)

Of course, we could buy from the resale market – but only if you’re 35 and above. (See HDB rules for singles here.)
In any case, with the mad escalation of resale prices in the last few
years, purchasing from the open market is beyond us. So, we’re left to
live with parents, or to rent a room which itself is costly.

Jointly organised by the National
Solidarity Party and the Think Centre, the Public Consultation on
Proposed Changes to the Mandatory Death Penalty drew a crowd of more
than 100, packed into a tight room to hear from both the legal and human
rights perspectives.

The event follows on the trail of the Singapore government’s announcement on 9 July 2012
to grant the courts discretion in considering specific mitigating
factors when passing sentence on drug trafficking and homicide cases.
Many saw this to be, effectively, the first step in the eradication of
the MDP, although others were less optimistic and still see areas for
improvement.

The
Prime Minister has just finished his National Day Rally speech for
the year and everyone is busy chatting about his speech. The
mainstream media published the uplifting bits of his speech, while
the online chaps did their song and dance about being more 'liberal'
in his approach to government.

One
of the things that caught my eye was the fact that he spent a good
portion of his speech telling Singaporeans how to behave better. This
portion of the speech was devoted to dealing with ugly online
behaviour towards our new arrivals from elsewhere and the thrust of
his comments was that such bad behaviour ruined Singapore's
international reputation.

For
the record, I agree with what he said. Perhaps it's just me but the
attitudes towards foreigners, particularly those who happen to be
dark skinned and from other parts of Asia disgusts me. I feel like
vomiting whenever I hear highly educated professional people in
Singapore talk about the unfortunate darkies doing the 'dirty' jobs.

The rising anti-foreigner sentiment in Singapore was a major theme in
Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's annual National Day Rally speech.

He gently chastised Singaporeans for using the internet anonymously
to further the phobic sentiments against foreigners, saying that this
can only hurt the city-state's global reputation.
But unlike the paternalistic leadership of the old, Mr Lee seems to be reaching out to the people.

Another one? Education minister Heng Swee Keat will lead yet another
committee that “should review what needs to change and where we should
act more boldly”, said Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in his National
Day message.

“We will engage Singaporeans in this review, and build a broad consensus on the way forward.”

Rachel Chang of the Straits Times spoke to academics, political observers and ordinary Singaporeans, and reported in herblogpost that there were two main reactions:

4 women from the PAP Women’s Wing, including MPs Jessica Tan and Intan
Azura Mokhtar, have came out with 6 recommendations to make Singaporeans
to produce more babies. And the recommendations are sensible.

Are they smarter than those that are paid millions to come up with such
good proposals? Or when can’t those who are paid in the millions come
out with such good proposals?

The talents in the Women’s Wing cannot be
more talented than the million dollar talents right? If they are, then
the Women’s Wing talents should be paid the million dollars instead.

The reason was exactly the incident that happened in September. Japan
and the US assumed that the waters near the Diaoyu Islands might be
threatened by Chinese military forces, although in ordinary people's
eyes a fishing boat barely represents a nation.

"Since the disappearance of the Soviet Union,” writes James Dobbins at RAND
Corp., “China has becomeAmerica’s default adversary, the power against which
the United States measures itself militarily, at least when there is no more
proximateenemy in sight.”

Wednesday, 29 August 2012

Hope,
heart, and home – the three Hs were the overarching themes in Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s National Day Rally Speech on Sunday evening.

During
his two-hour rally at the University Cultural Centre, PM Lee asked of
Singaporeans at home and the 1,500-strong audience in front of him,
"What is the next chapter of the Singapore story?".

Speaking first in
Malay, Mandarin and then English, the 60-year-old unveiled a series of
new measures to tackle education, popluation and healthcare challenges
to ensure the city-state stays competitive and relevant over the next 20
years. Full story

The full report of this year's National Day Rally is found here..."Think seriously about our future, contribute your ideas and work together to make it happen,"

PM Lee, National Day Rally 2012.

,.

PM Lee invites us to contribute our ideas to the new committee headed by
Heng Swee Kiat to engage Singaporeans on where the country should be in
the future. Yes, another committee, another conversation and another
round of ideas. There is no lack of ideas. That is not the problem. What
is lacking is the political leadership and will to implement them.

No one, except newly minted citizens and PRs, is surprised by the
overall tone and thrust of quiet PM Lee’ s National Day Speech. In line
with previous ND rallies, Singaporeans who succeeded in overcoming the
odds were singled out for the spotlight to fall on them to generate the
feel-good factor.

All the goodies to be dished out like help for
the low and middle income groups, support for part-time degree
students, changes to pre-school education, more buses, two more
universities are laudable and will improve the quality of life and give
more opportunities for Singaporeans (using my two eyes here).

PM
Lee bemoaned the the lack of graciousness of Singaporeans and nasty
anti-foreigner comments particularly online. The finger points at the
regime for its ultra generous immigration policies to all and sundry,
mainly from third world countries.

Singapore
will need to raise taxes in the next two decades as the government
boosts social spending to support an aging population, Prime Minister
Lee Hsien Loong said as he proposed measures to boost the country’s
birth rate.

“With a shrinking working population, an inadequate birth
rate and a higher dependency ratio, there is an inevitability that
taxes will have to be raised,” said Vishnu Varathan, a Singapore-based
economist at Mizuho Corporate Bank Ltd. “I don’t think anything will
change in our tax policy to make us less competitive in the next five to
10 years, but the prime minister is talking about something much
further out.” Full story

The indelible image from the National Day Rally (NDR)speech was a poor
girl squashing herself into her seat by the wall, hoping it will open up
and swallow her whole to spare her the embarrassment of her life. The
other cringe worthy moment was the yarn about an 87 year old auntie
shooting 50 hoops every morning at Teck Ghee. Maybe Lance Armstrong
should have adopted her porridge and Horlicks diet instead of
performance enhancing potions.

The NDR delivery was supposed to be our equivalent of the American State
of the Union address. Once upon a time Lee Kuan Yew used it as a
powerful platform to launch his epochal plans for the nation, such as
the stop at two(1960s - stop making babies) and graduate mother(1983 -
start making babies) policies.

Sometimes he would use the occasion to
remind Singaporeans who's in charge "‎..and even from my sickbed, even
if you are going to lower me to the grave and I feel that something is
going wrong, I'll get up!" (NDR 1988).read more

PM Lee National Day Rally Speech

It's about 10:15 am now. I collected those comments on the PM's NDR
speech with 11 or more likes. My proxy for resonance. I am particularly
worried about Lois Lai "free this, free that" suggestion. Aichi Chong
garnered 38 likes (I added myself later) which is way ahead of any other
comment.

These days practically nobody view their children as their old age
pension. This is good but we have forgotten a very important reason why
people have so many kids in the past. Even biologists concluded that
having many offspring is Nature's way of ensuring survival of the
species. However we have interfered so successfully with Nature and gone
to the other extreme. Poorer societies are closer to nature than us.
They use less energy, control their environment less and they also have
more children.

We will not solve our problem of low birth rate. Let's hope we are lucky
since we aren't willing to pay the price to overcome a declining
population.

The PM announced last evening that men will also be entitled to paternity leave,
similar to women's maternity leave, to look after their just borned
child. Everyone in the University Cultural Centre auditorium that I
could see through the TV broadcast clapped in approval, particularly the
women amongst them. The rationale? PM related an example of a women who
voiced her fears that she would be forgotten by her employer if she
took as long as 6 months maternity leave.

So fathers should step in to
shoulder this burden by being allowed to take similar leave to share the
burden of nursing the baby. All of which is dandy, until you think
about it further.

Would men not also be forgotten at the workplace when they take
paternity leave? The couple can now share equally the 4 months of
maternity leave that women are entitled to, that is 2 months each. And
even supposing it is 1 month out of the 4 for the men, it is probably 1
month too long for the men to be absent from the office. In this
dog-eat-dog world, if you are not around, you need not be around,
period. So sharing this load might lead to both of the
couple, the mother and the father, to become expendable employees. Which
is better - to have one expendable person or two?

OK not necessarily in that order and beating down our cynicism down like
beat the mole for once, that was a pretty good theme for the Rally
speech. The speech inspired more or less depending on how cynical one
was at different parts of the speech, especially near the end I was
super frustrated. I wanted to watch Super 8 as it started at 10pm and
wanted PM to rush through his speech. In the end, this year's message to
me was simple with the touch of nostalgia, plus Mediacorp's programme
on old school shops and Labour bar soap from yesteryear inserted into
the interval before PM started his rhetoric was great spin!

Ever since the GE where PAP lost a GRC, there have been many
symbolic changes on power sharing. Last year, for the first time ever
since 1965, opposition MPs attended the Rally. That is a a good
precedent and this year was no different signalling that the Rally
should be party-neutral as much as possible.

Just like this year's NDP
where the MPs discarded their whites and light blues, and wore hues of
red when they took the grandstand seats and graced the parade
party-neutral. Bravo, and I'm not sniggering, serious!

During PM's speech last night, a topic of raising taxes was brought up.
It was made to make you believe that we have no alternative but to raise
taxes in the near future. But we don't have to take that route. All we
need to do is to cut down the mad, mad, over expenditure on defence.

As social spending rises, taxes will eventually go upAs
spending on social services increases, so too must taxes - albeit not
immediately but "certainly within" the next two decades, said Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong yesterday.Singapore is already relying
on its reserves - by spending part of the returns from investing them -
to pay for benefits, and the S$8 billion cut of Net Investment Returns
Contributions last year helped to foot 14 per cent of Government
expenditures including special transfers.

Hsien Loong’s main themes were the heart, hope and home. When the heart
was not there, hope was dashed, and home became a big burden and a
troublesome factor in their lives. Many pains were inflicted on the
people because of the missing heart. Policies were shafted down the
people’s throat in a very arrogant way, dismissing the people as non
entities.

This is how I am going to do it. Like it or not, the people
just have to live with it.

What is really needed, instead of reactionary piece meal solutions, is
to flush the slimy little heart, if it is still there, with sulphuric
acid to get rid of the black stains of the past, to start with a new
heart. Instal a new set of heartware into the system and hope and home
will fall into place.

We will engage all Singaporeans in a national conversation: Heng Swee Kiat

Yahoo! News
Education
Minister Heng Swee Keat said government will engage all Singaporeans in
a national conversation about how to take the country forward by
"putting Singaporeans at the heart of our concerns".

He highlighted
three goals that the national conversation will seek to achieve:
reaffirm what is good and still relevant, see what has changed and
recalibrate accordingly and, refresh and innovate by
chartinhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifg new directions.

"It will
be an opportunity for Singaporeans to come together, and ask: What
matters most? Where do we want to go as a country, as a people?" Full story

Law Society members want it to explain recent clash with lawyer M Ravi

A group of about 50 lawyers have filed a motion on Friday for the Law
Society of Singapore (LAWSOC) to hold an Extraordinary General Meeting
(EGM) to explain the recent debacle between one of its officials, Mr
Wong Siew Hong and Mr M Ravi.

The group, who are all members of the LAWSOC, is led by Mr Noor Marican of Messer Marican & Associates.

According
to Mr Marican who spoke to the local media on Thursdy (23rd August),
some members have expressed concern over the incident and have not
received a full explaination as to what had transpired.

The behavior of the Law Society of Singapore (LSS) leaves very much
to be desired indeed. After a series of bungles, which give the
impression of a society seemingly acting like a headless chicken, it now
wants lawyer M Ravi committed to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH).

This
comes after a lawsuit has been lodged against the society and one Mr
Wong Siew Hong, its chairman of its Member Care committee; and a motion
filed with the society and backed up by “more than 50 members”
for the society “to hold an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) to
explain what led to the recent debate between one of its officials, Mr
Wong Siew Hong, and Mr Ravi.”

It all started on 15 July when Mr
Wong received a letter from psychiatrist, Dr Calvin Fones, who had seen
and assessed Mr Ravi’s state of mind on 14 July.
In his letter, which was addressed to the “Law Society”, Dr Fones said
Mr Ravi was “having a manic relapse of his bipolar disorder” and added
that Mr Ravi “is currently unfit to practice law and his illness is
likely to affect his professional capacity.”

The high-handed Lawless Society wants M Ravi to see a psychiatrist or
else his practising cert would be suspended. I think the EXCO members of
the Lawless Society need to see the psychiatrist or else the Registrar
of Societies revokes their licence to operate as a society. Just who do
these high handed guys think they are?

I have no love for M Ravi
and neither do I support the causes he fights for. However, every person
has a right to say his piece, as well as a right to a living. Lawless
Society is trying to break M Ravi's spirit and rice bowl by giving all
sorts of excuses to have his licence suspended. I feel the Lawless
Society's licence to operate is the one that needs to be suspended.

This
is not the first time the Lawless Society tried to stop M Ravi.
Supporters of M Ravi, as well as his non-supporters (like myself),
remember only too well the comical attempt Lawless Society made when
they barged into a court hearing where M Ravi was representing a client.
Here's that comical incident which the judge bundled off the Lawless
Society's reps - Lawless Society gatecrashes M Ravi's party, gets buttkicked by Judge

The Woffles Wu case has opened a Pandora’s box for the judicial
system in Singapore with subsequent offenders of similar offences now
using it as a precedent to appeal against a jail sentence.

Woffles Wu (pic left) was sentenced to only a $1,000 fine instead of a
usual jail term for providing false information to the traffic police
by getting his elderly employee to take the rap for his speeding
offences.

The verdict sparked a massive outcry among Singaporeans forcing the
Attorney-General Chambers and the Law Minister to issue a public
statement to explain the reasoning behind the uncharacteristic light
sentence for Woffles.

Now, pastor Steven Yang from Eternal Life Baptist Church is using the
Woffles case to appeal against his jail sentence of two weeks for
giving false information under the Customs Act.

Mr Chiang thought that Dr Ong didn’t know what happened during the
parliament discussions on Dr Wu. From Mr Chiang’s reply, it seems like
the other way round – it was Mr Chiang who didn’t know what happened.

Law minister Shanmugam merely showed six cases, a tiny fraction of
the thousands of cases relevant to Dr Wu’s case. These six cases were
far from adequate to show that Dr Wu’s case was in line with all such
cases. It was therefore meaningless to ask Ms Lim to clarify her
position since any position based on six out of thousands of cases was
bound to be inadequate and meaningless.

It was wrong of Mr Chiang to say that accepting Mr Shanmugam’s
argument meant confirming the integrity of the system as there was no
way of confirming the integrity of the system just by looking at six
cases. To confirm the integrity of the system, all cases must be shown
to be in line with Dr Wu’s case. If just one case is not in line with
Dr Wu’s case, the integrity of the system is compromised.

Singapore Pastor Steven Yang Suan Piau was jailed for 2 weeks for lying
to Custom officer about the 3/4 tank filled in his car even though he
had installed a fuel tank switch. Plastic Surgeon Dr Woffle Wu had asked
his elderly staff to take the rap for speeding offense to evade a fine
and demerit points. Dr Woffle Wu was given a STERN warning and was fined
$1500.

Law Minister Shanmugan said in Parliament that Dr Woffle's case was not a
case of bias because there were many cases where offenders were let off
with a light sentence.

Pastor Yang with a mandate from God had lied to custom officer about his
less than 3/4 fuel tank to save on fuel and to evade GST of about $107.00 (assume he pump an equilvant of S$100 worth of petrol in JB) was given 2 weeks jail.

Singapore Law and Foreign Affairs Minister K Shanmugam has explained
why he made public the case involving a resident who made racial slurs
against a neighbour.

Many netizens had questioned Mr Shanmugam's motive,
including what the incident said about Singapore and if Indians are
being targeted.

On August 21, Mr Shanmugam had written about a resident
who was upset that he had to tolerate his Indian neighbours, their smell
and unwashed bodies. Mr Shanmugam described the complaints as being
quite disturbing as it appears the man sees his neighbour's race as
being the problem.

It must have annoyed a lot of people to see on the front page of the
Straits Times, Wednesday 15 August 2012, the boast that Singapore was
the ‘richest country in the world’, validated by another hitherto
unheard-of ranking study.

There might have been a time when people here would have taken pride
in such an accolade. What better proof that all the sacrifices made in
the decades post-independence had paid off, and that our city-state had
arrived? But several people I spoke too pointed out that not only do we
know it isn’t easy to be the richest country in the world, we look
around us and we can clearly see so much that is wrong. “Richest country
in the world” can’t possibly mean what it means in plain language.

Someone once described the ideal audience as intelligent, highly
educated and a little drunk. Well, you qualify except on the last point.
But there’s somebody among you who’s probably now wishing for a stiff
drink or two to calm her nerves. This is a nice, caring friend of mine
who worries endlessly on my account, because of a what she calls my ‘
daring and dangerous’ political speeches.

When I told her that my talk
this evening would be about Mr Lee Kuan Yew, she let out a little shriek
of horror, threw up her hands, rolled her eyes, shook her head, and
said in utmost exasperation, ‘You really are so mm-chai-see!’
And she genuinely believes that right here, hidden among you somewhere
is this hall, is a PAP man in black with the handcuffs at the ready, to
escort me out after the lecture!

I would like to say to my kind, nervous friend, ‘It’s okay. There’s
no need to be afraid.’ Ten years ago, five years ago, maybe even as
recently as one and half years ago, public speakers would need to be a
little afraid if they dared to speak on politically sensitive topics,
that is, those subjects forbidden by the famous out-of-bounds markers.
But since the amazing General Election of last year, things have
changed, and today it’s okay for Singaporeans to speak freely and openly
(but civilly and respectfully, of course) on any issue of national
interest and concern.

Why did we want to have kids? If we had we conducted a standard
cost-benefit analysis (CBA), here’s how it would have looked like: High
initial costs of prenatal and delivery fees, medical check-ups, infant
care and childcare fees. There would be 25 years or more of continuous
expenditure from diapers to degrees.

Since we don’t expect our kids to
support us in our old age, the payback period is infinity. So using the
CBA approach, the conclusion would have been that this child-raising
project should not be undertaken.

This is a clear departure from previous generations, where the costs
for raising kids were not so high, the period of upbringing was shorter
(since children left school and went out to work earlier), and children
were presumed to be the parents’ old age social security policy.

Recently the outcry against racism is getting louder. Many, even a
minister, are raising issues of racism openly. Yes, there are incidents
of racism in this island and there is nothing to hide, or better to
sweep them under the carpet.

The case of this elderly man berating his
Indian neighbour for unpleasant smell, unhygienic lifestyle, and turning
his flat into a squalor, has been given special prominence by the
minister in his Facebook posting.

What is the intent of the minister, to
prove that there is racism, to use this as an issue in the national
dialogue or to say that racism exists in little pockets in the society?

I have struggled
to comprehend this strange educational policy since I stepped into the
National University of Singapore and realised that for my course’s
cohort of around 60 pupils, 2 Singaporeans are on the NUS scholarship, 1
Malaysian is on the ASEAN scholarship and 17 Chinese Nationals are on
the Undergraduate Scholarship for PRC students (website: National
University of Singapore).

While foreigners enjoy the luxury of
studying without worrying about monetary issues, my fellow Singaporeans
step into society ridden with debt. Some of them work to finance their
studies and others take bank loans which leave them with a debt of more
than S$24,000 when they step out into society. They have to pay their
tuition fees and accomodation, all out of their own pocket.

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

The noise from the online community in Singapore and
Singaporeans’ often times aggressive sentiments towards foreigners
cannot be ignored.

Tonight at the National Day Rally, in one of its more impassioned
moments, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong gave his take on the matter,
saying Singapore cannot be a “one-eyed dragon”, where its people “slam
the shortcomings of others and ignore our own transgressions".

He said it was fair for people to express concern or to disagree with
immigration trends and policies, but some of the nasty views that he
has come across are worrying, especially when they are expressed
anonymously online.

Singapore will need to raise taxes
in the next two decades as the government boosts social spending
to support an aging population, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong
said as he proposed measures to boost the country’s birth rate.

The prime minister pledged to ensure sufficient affordable
housing for citizens, invest in pre-school education and add
nursing homes for the elderly. He urged Singaporeans to build a
more compassionate society, reject anti-foreigner sentiment and
have more babies, saying the nation needs to re-invent itself as
the economy faces slower growth after years of rapid expansion.

“As our social spending increases significantly, sooner or
later, our taxes must go up,” Lee said late yesterday in his
annual televised National Day Rally address, which ran for more
than two hours. “Not immediately, but if we are talking about
20 years, certainly within that 20 years, whoever is the
government will at some point have to raise taxes because the
spending will have to be done.”

Every August, after the hype and excitement of the Singapore National
Day Parade has died down, our Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong makes the
National Day Rally speech.

Of course, there were the easily predictable buzzwords. Even before a
single word was uttered on live television we all knew that there would
be mention of increased engagement between the government and the
people, and of course, almost excessive use of the word “inclusive”.

This year, three ministers – Education Minister Heng Swee Keat,
Minister of State for Community Development, Youth and Sports Halimah
Yacob and Senior Minister of State for Education and for Information,
Communications and the Arts Lawrence Wong – gave speeches before Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong took centre stage.

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has urged citizens to be more tolerant of foreigners.

He said so after expressing concern over rising anti-foreigner sentiment that is hurting the city-state's reputation globally.

"I
think it's fair enough to express concern, or to disagree with our
immigration trends, or to oppose our immigration policies," Lee said in
his annual National Day Rally speech, acknowledging that the influx of
foreigners in recent years has aggravated socio-economic problems in the
tiny Southeast Asian island.

Mr
Tharman said this can be done by providing the best opportunities for
Singaporeans to develop their potential when young and have good jobs,
and by ensuring that the country's social policies place Singaporeans at
the centre.

The deputy prime minister, who is also the Minister
for Finance, made the comments in a Facebook post following Sunday
night's National Day Rally.

Govt will hear all views, but not all will be taken into account: Amy Khor

Dr Amy Khor said the government will hear all views and suggestions, but not all can be taken into account.

The
chairman of the government's feedback unit, REACH, was speaking to
MediaCorp 93.8 Live about the national conversation on the future of the
country.

She said: "I think that the key really is to close the
loop. Not all suggestions can be taken into account, of course. We will
hear all views and all suggestions, but as in all things, there will
always be trade-offs.readmore

A timely look at those 'other' issues

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong offered Singaporeans a refreshing change
at this year's National Day Rally: He shared the occasion with not one
but three other government leaders. Stylistically, the change in format
took away the element of jaded predictability.

There was
also an important signalling effect - a subtle manifestation of a more
inclusive leadership style, and how different perspectives have a place
under the Singapore sun.

While recent rally speeches were
gradually less heavily economic-accented, this time round the economy
clearly took a back seat. Post-material concerns and aspirational issues
took centre stage and, hopefully, mark definitively the first steps
towards "right-sizing" our attitudes towards material and post-material
aspirations.

A fortune teller was sentenced to 12 years' jail and six strokes of the cane for raping a teenage girl.

Siah Kwang Yung raped the teen in her own bedroom on the pretext of conducting demon exorcism rites.

According to Sin Ming Daily, the victim's mother was at Waterloo
Street in September 2011 when she was approached by someone who told her
that she was down in luck and recommended she see a fortune teller.

A policeman's long
career came crashing down after he was jailed 12 weeks on Monday for
having paid sex with an underage girl in the high-profile online vice
case.

39-year-old Tan Wee Kiat, who has been in the police force
for 14 years, was one of several men charged for having paid sex with
the same girl.

In his sentencing, District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt
said that Tan, who did not verify the girl's age, "should have known
better." However, he noted that Tan, a senior police officer, did not
commit the offence while on duty.

A Briton who
molested a woman in Clarke Quay, was acquitted of the charge after he
apologised to her in open court and was ordered by the court to pay her
S$5,000 in compensation.

39-year-old Patrick Cormak Cusack, an
engineer with a multinational corporation, apologised to the 29-year-old
woman for causing her hurt or distress for the incident on May 1.
Cusack, who is married with four children, added that it was "completely
out of character" for him.

However, Cusack was still slapped
with a S$2,000 fine for a second charge of hurling obscenities at a
police officer who tried to arrest him for the offence. Cusack swore at
Staff Sergeant Nazri Ahmad when he was being questioned.

Chinese astronauts Liu Wang (centre), Jing Haipeng (left) and Liu Yang
in the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft during a manned space mission which
includes China's first female astronaut.

BEIJING - Neil Armstrong's 1969 lunar landing marked a pinnacle of US
technological achievement, defining what many saw as the American
century, but the next person to set foot on the moon will likely be
Chinese.

As the United States has scaled back its manned space programme to
cut costs - a move strongly criticised by Armstrong, who died on
Saturday - Asian nations have aggressively expanded into space
exploration.

China, Japan and India all have their own space programmes. New
Delhi, which envisages its first manned mission in 2016, recently
unveiled ambitious plans to launch a space probe that would orbit Mars.

The Law Society of Singapore has informed its members of a requisition
to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) to explain its clash
with lawyer M Ravi.

In an email sent out yesterday
evening, the society said the requisition, which carried 51 signatures,
wanted members to discuss the society's role in Mr Wong Siew Hong, one
of its officials, appearing before Justice Philip Pillai in open court
on July 16 purportedly with the authority of the society to present a
confidential letter from Mr Ravi's psychiatrist.

Singapore is aiming to raise the proportion of local
youths admitted to universities to 40 percent by 2020 by increasing the
number of national universities to six from the current four, Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Sunday.

Lee said in his National Day Rally speech that the Singapore
Institute of Technology, which was established by the government in
2009, will offer more places. The SIM University, a private institution
which currently runs part-time courses, will offer full-time courses,
too. The part-time students at these two institutions will also get more
funding support.

The government will build on the strength and branding of the
Singapore Institute of Technology and the SIM University, with an
emphasis on degrees in applied sciences, he said.

Students have started to be admitted, faculty members have been hired,
and construction has begun on the site that will become the home of Yale University ’s first joint college in its 300-year history.

The first 150 students of the Yale-National University of Singapore College
will begin a liberal arts curriculum, incorporating the study of East
and West, on the existing N.U.S. campus in roughly one year. The new
Yale-N.U.S. campus is expected to open in 2015.

The college could make a valuable contribution to higher education in
Asia, some education experts say, but Yale has also received withering
criticism for lending its name to an institution in Singapore, where
freedom of assembly and association is restricted.

The writer, who identifies herself as G.T. and an engineering student at the National University of Singapore
, is not the only one complaining online that international students,
some of whom receive scholarships, are squeezing Singaporeans out of
public universities.

Universities around the world have made attracting international
students a fundamental goal. And Singapore has been successful in its
pursuit, with foreigners representing 18 percent of the undergraduate
student population.

Monday, 27 August 2012

Lawyer files affidavit, says order is 'unnecessary, redundant and otiose'

The Law Society of Singapore has applied for a court order for lawyer M
Ravi, who has bipolar disorder, to be medically examined by a
psychiatrist at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to determine if he
is fit to practise law.

Should the order be granted, Mr
Ravi will have to comply within 14 days of the date of the order.
Otherwise, the society will suspend his practising certificate.

Dated Aug 14, the originating summons - copies of which were
distributed to the media by Mr Ravi at a press conference yesterday -
states that a report by the IMH on Mr Ravi's fitness to practise must be
submitted within two weeks after his medical examination. Should the
report state that he is unfit to practise, his practising certificate
will be suspended.

Khoo, 49, was Senior Vice-President of the English and Malay
newspapers division and also headed the committee that held events to
raise funds for The Straits Times School Pocket Money Fund. He was
dismissed from SPH in September 2010.

The penalty for giving false information under the Customs Act is a fine
of up to S$5,000 or jail term of up to a year, or both, and Mr Ong
argued Parliament did not prescribe a minimum sentence for the offence
and had left it to the discretion of the courts.

The lawyer
also drew similarities to the recent case of Woffles Wu, who was fined
S$1,000 for giving false information to the police about his speeding
offences.

In both cases, the false information given was
to evade a small speeding fine or a "small amount of excise duty on
petrol", said Mr Ong.

Law Minister K Shanmugam has elaborated on why he chose to highlight a
Singaporean’s racist email on his Facebook page, after online users
questioned why he raised such a sensitive issue.

Channel NewsAsia reported that he said it was not a one-off case and
while Singapore has done well as a tolerant society, its people cannot
be complacent about it.

On his Facebook page on Tuesday, Mr Shanmugam said that he had
received an email complaint from a Singaporean man “a few weeks ago”
telling him about the “Indian sweaty smell and unwashed bodies” of the
man’s neighbours. The minister found the man’s complaints about his
Indian neighbours “quite disturbing”.

WHETHER in office or out of it, Lee Kuan Yew has this knack for capturing the headlines.

On Aug 12, Singaporeans woke up to the founding prime minister's
familiar black-or-white argument: get married and have children, or
"this place will fold up because there will be no original citizens left
to form the majority".

You can't be more stark and scary than this. The statistics are there for all to see:

A new study is claiming that having unprotected sex or giving oral
sex makes women happier – a claim that will no doubt make men happier as
well.

Researchers at the State University of New York were analysing the
effects of semen properties, which showed that it contains mood-altering
chemicals that fights depression (at least three anti-depressants
including serotonin), enhances mood (oxycotin and estrone), increases
affection (cortisol) and induces sleep (melatonin).

The Medical Daily, a US website, reported that the study tapped into
an anonymous survey of 293 female students on the University of Albany
campus, which found that women who had oral sex or unprotected sex were
more contented than those who used protection.

A federal study on the sexual behavior of young Americans released on
Thursday countered a widespread belief that oral sex was increasing and
vaginal sex decreasing among teenagers due to fears of pregnancy and
sexually transmitted diseases.

Two in every three young Americans have engaged in oral sex, about
the same percentage as those who have engaged in vaginal intercourse,
the study by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Center for
Vital Statistics found.

It also showed that the rates of both practices among the U.S. youth have dropped since a decade ago.

(LOS ANGELES) A porn industry trade group has announced a U.S.
moratorium on production of adult sex films after several reported cases
of syphilis among adult film actors, adding to the pressure on porn
producers to require the use of condoms on sets.

The actors can return to work in 10 days after taking antibiotics,
and doctors have recommended treating all adult film actors as a
precaution, the Los Angeles-based Free Speech Coalition said in a
statement on its website late on Monday.

LOS ANGELES - Trained as a gynecologist and reconstructive surgeon, Dr.
John Miklos calls himself a "medical tailor," specializing in surgery to
reshape a woman's private parts.

The Atlanta surgeon, who
has performed gynecological surgery for nearly 20 years, cites cases of
patients who say their sexual response improved after vaginoplasty, a
procedure to surgically tighten a vagina stretched by childbirth or
aging.

"Women come to me and say they don't have the urge
to have sex anymore because they don't feel anything," Miklos said. "I
guarantee that if a man didn't feel anything, he wouldn't have sex
either."

NEW YORK - Researchers have identified a mysterious new disease that has
left scores of people in Asia and some in the United States with
AIDS-like symptoms even though they are not infected with HIV.

The patients' immune systems become damaged, leaving them unable to
fend off germs as healthy people do. What triggers this isn't known, but
the disease does not seem to be contagious.

This is
another kind of acquired immune deficiency that is not inherited and
occurs in adults, but doesn't spread the way AIDS does through a virus,
said Dr Sarah Browne, a scientist at the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Diseases.

When the Democratic Party of Japan took power three years ago, it promised a radical overhaul of foreign policy.

It wanted to rebalance relations with the United States and
China, by addressing its "over-dependence" on the former and its
strained relations with the latter. In a world moving from US
unipolarity to multipolarity, in the words of Mr Yukio Hatoyama, then
Prime Minister, Japan would rediscover Asia as its "basic sphere of
being".

It was a grand vision. Today it lies in shreds.
That became clearer this week with Tokyo's replacement of its ambassador
to Beijing after a flare-up in Sino-Japanese tension.

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Jurors felt Samsung Electronics Co Ltd should pay significant damages in the landmark patent trial against Apple Inc, even though they viewed Apple's demands as too high, according to the foreman.

Apple won a sweeping victory against Samsung on Friday in a federal courtroom in San Jose, California.

A nine-member jury found the Korean company had infringed on several Apple features and design patents and awarded the iPhone maker $1.05 billion in damages, which could be tripled because the jury also decided the Korean firm had acted willfully.

Dr Balding cited Singapore's Temasek as an example of a
non-commodity-based fund. Temasek requires the country to amass current
account and fiscal surpluses of 30% of gross domestic product to endow
the fund.

"In countries without such clear funding sources, it is unclear that
establishment is a wise idea due to the incredibly distortive policies
it requires," he said.

"Sovereign wealth funds can simply become public savings that need to
be paid for. In the absence of existing national wealth such as natural
resources, countries should seriously review the distortion they
introduce."